Bellaire, West U team up for employment study

ANNE MARIE KILDAY

Published 7:00 pm, Monday, April 14, 2008

The cities of Bellaire and West University Place are likely to join forces to study how to attract and keep municipal employees — especially police officers and firefighters — in the face of high turnover, increased commuting costs and stiff competition.

Bellaire City Manager Bernie Satterwhite and West U City Manager Michael Ross agree that the two suburban cities should conduct a joint “compensation survey” for recommendations on pay and benefits, as well as market forces that have made it harder to find city workers.

The city councils of Bellaire and West U have authorized about $35,000 to $40,000 for a consultant to study their city’s pay structures and benefits, and to make recommendations on possible changes.

Satterwhite and Ross said that they are discussing hiring a single consultant because their cities have “similar issues” in finding qualified city employees.

The problem isn’t isolated to public safety, they said.

“Quite honestly, it seems more difficult to recruit employees these days,” Satterwhite said. “Certainly pay is a factor, but the fact is we are looking at very high commuting costs, while some outlying cities in this area, like Pearland and Sugar Land are expanding rapidly. If a person has an opportunity to get good pay and benefits, and a 10-mile commute, that makes it more difficult for us.”

Ross agreed.

“We have employees who leave other potential employers to drive to our cities. They live in Pearland or Sugar Land,” Ross said. “We have to make it worthwhile, at $3.30 per gallon, to drive into West U.”

Bellaire’s need for more police officers and other city employees “is fairly critical right now,” Satterwhite said.

Ross said West U has a similar problem.

“If you look at the Texas Municipal League’s website, you’ll see that 95 cities in Texas are trying to hire police officers right now,” Ross said.

And, both cities are being challenged by the $12,000 to $13,000 signing bonus that the Houston Police Department is offering to new officers, Ross said. West U has lost “some” officers to Houston, Ross said.

By working together, both cities would get a more comprehensive study of “what’s changed in the job market,” Satterwhite said.

“We have a very different generation coming in, and they have different expectations and values,” Satterwhite said.

“The entry level people have different expectations than they had 20 years ago,” Satterwhite said. “Today, people tend to be more mobile. They tend to go from job to job. Right now, we’ve got employees who have been here a long, long time. Job security used to be a big issue, but today it is a lesser issue.”

Turnover is higher than it used to be in both cities, the city managers said.

“That’s another thing we need to look at,” Satterwhite said. “There’s been a good amount of turnover,”

Both cities want to be sure that salaries and benefits are keeping up with the job market, Satterwhite said.

“We want to make sure we can attract, and retain, the best and brightest in our city — just like Bernie does,” Ross said. “We also want to keep the employees we have today.”